From our archives, 100 years ago

A long cold spell had frozen Lake Coeur d’Alene nearly solid.

However, the Red Collar steamer line was still making regular trips between Coeur d’Alene and Harrison, with the help of an icebreaker.

The icebreaker consisted of a heavy barge protected by steel sheeting and shoved forward by one of the Red Collar’s steamers.

It “keeps open a narrow channel, that viewed from adjacent hills, looks like a huge lariat thrown down on Lake Coeur d’Alene’s frozen surface.” The loop of the “lariat” lies against the dock at Harrison and the other end “disappears from view around East Point.”

From the liquor beat: About 78 Chinese residents of Spokane showed up at police court and asked for their booze back. A vast store of illegal alcohol had been confiscated by police from a warehouse in Spokane’s Chinatown two weeks earlier.

Tai Gee, the unofficial mayor of Chinatown, led “a major portion of Spokane’s Chinese colony” to the court with the understanding they would receive the maximum lawful portion of their liquor back. The state’s new prohibition law allowed people to retain a small quantity for personal use.

The residents went home empty-handed but were told to return later for a hearing.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2003: The space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members.